


once upon a time

by tigriswolf



Series: written for school [4]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 19:33:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1097787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/pseuds/tigriswolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>once upon a time<br/>the story goes<br/>my story?<br/>or yours?</p>
            </blockquote>





	once upon a time

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as part of a final project for one of my classes. *shrugs* I recited it for my class and it was the most nervousness I'd felt about presenting something in a very long time. Now I’m considering presenting the paper part of it at a conference for grad students in February (as well as the beginning of my thesis). The entire idea terrifies me. *sighs* 
> 
> Why is fanfiction so much easier?

_Let me start with this:_

_Your knowledge is not knowledge._  
_Your people are not people._  
_Why tell your story when I could tell mine?_

_Your history is not remembered._  
_You didn’t exist._  
_Your names, your faces – they’re forgotten._  
_No, not even that –_  
_They were never remembered to start with._

once upon a time  
the story goes  
my story?  
or yours? 

my story is not your story  
(or is it?)  
and here now I'll tell it through

my blood flows down time  
mother to daughter and father to son  
I am all who came before  
and I am all who shall follow me down

I am not in your textbook  
my history is of no import  
to those who write  
those who lie  
those who pick and choose  
those who decide

my story is not your story  
my story is my own  
and my blood's  
and my people  
(gone and gone and gone)  
I left nothing on the ground  
nothing in the fire  
nothing to mark that I had been there

but there I was  
and here I am  
telling my story  
telling my name  
revealing your shame  
(your shame, yes, and mine)

there I was  
and here I am  
and there they will be  
those who follow  
those whose stories come next 

(written down?  
spoken?  
remember us  
remember them)

(remember you)

my story, my dears  
their story, too  
the story of us all  
if we but see the truth

_How does it end?_  
_Ask and I’ll tell you._  
_Are you asking?_


End file.
